Rejected by the Pack, Chosen by the True Alpha

ing the allergy that should have killed my body within hours. When a lunar eclipse finally frayed her grip, I claw

wolfsbane tea toward me

lergic. I nearly died

called my suffering a pa

convulse on the floor. Hours later, he stood over my hospital bed and

d. He threw me into a silver dungeon swarming with rabid r

they not recognize my own soul? They watched me swallow a fatal fl

ghter to death until my heart flatlined and a maid f

hospital. My guardian spirit had woven me a new, br

come crawling back,

pte

ena

solve under my scouring fingers. For three years, I had worn this mask

e fiction of a wild

of the Blood Moon Pack's true daughter

She had kept my body alive through three years of wolfsbane-a poison that should have killed me in childhood-by wrapping my internal organs

olf relies on to identify their own blood. My family could smell my skin and hear my voice, but my essence-the thing that should have screamed Serena to eve

esture of peace, a plea for my family

ulse, a barely audible trem

for the familiar warmth o

an? It's me, S

d, bracing for the wave of reli

th

slammed door-the psychic echo of

municated me f

gut, but I descended the stair

heavy gothic tapestries, a morb

and Luna, presided over the

so much as l

a delicate porcelain teacup skidding

commanded, her

he pale, murky yel

stung my nostrils-a bitter poison laced

s, had called this her special floral tea. Her dark magic had kep

ys been a lethal poison to w

thing in my throat. "You know I'm aller

table, the crack of the impa

anya drinks this every morning. We will not in

, stony refusal. But I caught it-the briefest tremor in his jaw. A hairlin

forming a new cruelty. Or perhaps,

e echoed in the priv

ielded my consciousness when Tanya had evicted it. He had hidden my soul in the

can pull you from this house, Ori

hardening within me. Conserve your streng

to my senses. No one spoke. No one moved to intervene. I stared into the cloudy depths of the cup, felt an

t-a searing heat that felt as if it

kin, a constellation of agony where the

e floor, my body convulsing in v

l pain-a paltry thing next to

rose from

ing pheromones, offe

ered remains of the teacup. She stro

do this deliberately, just to spoil her memorial day! Wha

ing room, off to prepare a festiv

h felt like a vast, heat-sucking sponge, greedi

was swel

not draw

e was pulli

of sterile alcohol and antiseptic cut through th

ng that arrived before his Beta authority ever did. As the pack's chief healer, his hands

ry scent of my blood and sw

e floor and rushed me